As we reported earlier, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong keynoted at the American Telemedicine Association’s annual meeting this past week. I also got a chance to meet with him for just a few minutes after his talk, and recorded the interview.
In this recording, Soon-Shiong, the billionaire founder of NantWorks and NantHealth, expressed the belief that patients need to be more in control of their own healthcare experiences. “Our goal is to convert what people call patient-centered care to patient-empowered care,” he said.
Soon-Shiong said he does not believe patients lack the knowledge to interpret information about their health, as long as that information is timely and relevant to their disease. In fact, he questioned whether physicians are able to keep up with advances in medicine. “The science is evolving so rapidly that the current practitioners themselves have not been trained in this new world of molecular science,” he said.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
During his keynote, Soon-Shiong showed off a prototype consumer-controlled device called NantPorter that stores vast amounts of patient data and transfers it over a very high-speed connection to a smartphone, tablet or PC. To me, that sounded like the latest iteration of the untethered personal health record, a field laden with failure. Soon-Shiong explained why he thinks NantPorter is different.
He also confirmed that a planned initial public offering for NantHealth is in process, but declined to give more details.
Have a listen.
